DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Majcherek, Grzegorz: Kom el-Dikka: Excavation and preservation work, 2003/2004
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42090#0024
ALEXANDRIA
EGYPT
say the least. Sherds of Late Roman
amphorae, both Egyptian and foreign,
found sealed behind the benches, belonged
to the 5th-6th century AD horizon. The
coins, however, were rather poorly preserved
and unreadable on the whole. The final
occupation of these halls can be established
more securely. Considering the entirety
of the material (pottery, lamps and glass
finds), it can be dated to the late 7th century
AD.
AREA AS
Yet another auditorium (N) was cleared
immediately below the medieval cemetery
level. It was an elongated structure
(approximately 14.25 m long), clearly
divided into the auditorium proper and
preceding anteroom. The latter almost
square room (5.00 x 5.10 m), accessed from
the Theatre Portico, opened into the
auditorium through a wide doorway. The
lecture hall (approx. 8.75 m long) was
furnished with three built rows of stone
benches placed along the walls and an
apsidal ending on the south [Fig. 4}•
Remnants of an elevated seat and the low
steps leading to it occupied the center of
the apse. The western stretch of benches
was found almost totally dismantled.
Remnants of a single bench were preserved
also in the vestibule. The floor in both
rooms, badly damaged by later burials, was
paved with regular limestone slabs.
Its east wall, although heavily weath-
ered, has been preserved to a height of
0.90-1.70 m above floor level. The west
(back wall of the portico) and south walls
were shaved off practically at ground level.
The damages were apparently due to
medieval plundering.
Investigations to date have shown that
similar halls ran all along the colonnade;
excavations in the coming season are set on
clearing the remaining auditoria. A few
halls of this kind had been explored already
in the 1980s,4 but it was the unexpected
discovery of seven new halls, coupled with
additional research and a study of the writ-
ten sources, that led us to conclude that we
had uncovered the remains of an academic
institution of Late Antique Alexandria.
The most recent discoveries have also
shed new light on the function of the
nearby theatre, discovered in the 1960s.
Likely in the 6th century AD, following
a major architectural renovation program
that turned it also into an auditorium, the
theatre was incorporated into the same
academic complex and may have been used
as a meeting place or lecture hall for larger
student bodies.5
The academic complex discovered at
the Kom el-Dikka site provides surprising
evidence of the enduring nature and
liveliness of the academic and intellectual
traditions of Alexandrian science, the most
famous institutions of which were the
Library and Museum, older by a few
hundred years.6 We believe it crucial to our
understanding of the higher education
system of Late Antiquity in general.
4 For the lecture halls excavated in the 1980s, cf. M. Rodziewicz, "Excavations at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria 1980-81",
ASAE 70 (1984), 236-240; cf. also set of auditoria located close to the southern passage of the Baths, Z. Kiss et al.,
Fouilles polonaises a Kom el-Dikka 1986-1987, Alexandrie VII (Warsaw 2000), 9-33-
5 W. Kol^taj, "Theoretical reconstruction of the Late Roman theatre at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria", in: C.J. Eyre (ed.),
Proceedings of the 7th International Congress of Egyptologists (Leuven 1998), 631-638.
6 For the intellectual life of Late Antique Alexandria, cf. D. Roques, "Alexandrie tardive et protobyzantine (I'Ve-Vile s.):
temoignages d'auteurs", in: Alexandrie: une megapole cosmopolite (Paris 1999), 203-236.
22
EGYPT
say the least. Sherds of Late Roman
amphorae, both Egyptian and foreign,
found sealed behind the benches, belonged
to the 5th-6th century AD horizon. The
coins, however, were rather poorly preserved
and unreadable on the whole. The final
occupation of these halls can be established
more securely. Considering the entirety
of the material (pottery, lamps and glass
finds), it can be dated to the late 7th century
AD.
AREA AS
Yet another auditorium (N) was cleared
immediately below the medieval cemetery
level. It was an elongated structure
(approximately 14.25 m long), clearly
divided into the auditorium proper and
preceding anteroom. The latter almost
square room (5.00 x 5.10 m), accessed from
the Theatre Portico, opened into the
auditorium through a wide doorway. The
lecture hall (approx. 8.75 m long) was
furnished with three built rows of stone
benches placed along the walls and an
apsidal ending on the south [Fig. 4}•
Remnants of an elevated seat and the low
steps leading to it occupied the center of
the apse. The western stretch of benches
was found almost totally dismantled.
Remnants of a single bench were preserved
also in the vestibule. The floor in both
rooms, badly damaged by later burials, was
paved with regular limestone slabs.
Its east wall, although heavily weath-
ered, has been preserved to a height of
0.90-1.70 m above floor level. The west
(back wall of the portico) and south walls
were shaved off practically at ground level.
The damages were apparently due to
medieval plundering.
Investigations to date have shown that
similar halls ran all along the colonnade;
excavations in the coming season are set on
clearing the remaining auditoria. A few
halls of this kind had been explored already
in the 1980s,4 but it was the unexpected
discovery of seven new halls, coupled with
additional research and a study of the writ-
ten sources, that led us to conclude that we
had uncovered the remains of an academic
institution of Late Antique Alexandria.
The most recent discoveries have also
shed new light on the function of the
nearby theatre, discovered in the 1960s.
Likely in the 6th century AD, following
a major architectural renovation program
that turned it also into an auditorium, the
theatre was incorporated into the same
academic complex and may have been used
as a meeting place or lecture hall for larger
student bodies.5
The academic complex discovered at
the Kom el-Dikka site provides surprising
evidence of the enduring nature and
liveliness of the academic and intellectual
traditions of Alexandrian science, the most
famous institutions of which were the
Library and Museum, older by a few
hundred years.6 We believe it crucial to our
understanding of the higher education
system of Late Antiquity in general.
4 For the lecture halls excavated in the 1980s, cf. M. Rodziewicz, "Excavations at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria 1980-81",
ASAE 70 (1984), 236-240; cf. also set of auditoria located close to the southern passage of the Baths, Z. Kiss et al.,
Fouilles polonaises a Kom el-Dikka 1986-1987, Alexandrie VII (Warsaw 2000), 9-33-
5 W. Kol^taj, "Theoretical reconstruction of the Late Roman theatre at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria", in: C.J. Eyre (ed.),
Proceedings of the 7th International Congress of Egyptologists (Leuven 1998), 631-638.
6 For the intellectual life of Late Antique Alexandria, cf. D. Roques, "Alexandrie tardive et protobyzantine (I'Ve-Vile s.):
temoignages d'auteurs", in: Alexandrie: une megapole cosmopolite (Paris 1999), 203-236.
22